Christmas craziness!

This post is long over due but I feel I have been really busy and very hungover and therefore unable to write in a comprehensible way. Considering I am in a Jewish community we definitely managed to create some kind of Christmas spirit here.

Me, Rosie and Garam: coffee & sunshine on Christmas!

On the 19th of December it was my room mate, Garam's 25th birthday and it was also the kibbutz 63rd birthday party. As the tree toppling storm was over  we had a BBQ! Lots of beef and kosher chorizo as well as the usual hummas, pita, salad and free red wine!

Garam is a cocktail queen so we had wine at dinner followed cocktails and some dancing round the house. Most people went to bed pretty early but it was her Birthday so I stayed and made sure she had fun. Then it was Friday and we had to go to work...horrible hangover at work number 1. 

Friday evening the Jewish Philippinos who live and  work on the kibbutz had an Xmas party on the 20th, which was funny. I arrived a little late and they were all on the dance floor moving in synchronised rows. I only heard one Christmas song but the place was decorated pretty well.  There was loads of delicious Asian food and cake and more drinking. They also played a party game which seemed to have some interesting rules. It seemed like musical chairs but spiced up a little. The guys stood in the middle holding a cup? between their legs and the girls dancing around and when the music stopped the girls had to put a straw into one of the cups a guy was holding. I am not sure exactly as I was sat at the back in order to avoid being coaxed into joining in.

Later there was the usual dancing the night away at mafia and then Saturdays day of rest.
Okay time to skip to Christmas eve.

Forgot to take photos but this does the trick!

Me and Rosie have decided we are making Christmas dinner like we would have back home for all the volunteers! I got Rami to order us a turkey an  then did an improvised version of Nigella's ingenious way to keep the turkey from being dry  with the species I physically managed to sniff out in the kitchen, as they are all written in Hebrew and everyone else had gone home. I did get chili powder up my nose and in my eye at one point was not a pleasant experience. We even managed to get our hands on sausages and bacon to make pigs in blankets.

So you would think the other volunteers would be appreciative but due to cultural differences on Christmas eve this was not the case. Turns out the rest of the world apart from the UK does Xmas dinner on Christmas eve. I sat down to eat lunch with everyone on the 24th and all got was people moaning at me as to ask why we weren't having dinner that evening. I was a little pissed off to say the least. The Brits were cooking so everyone else  would just have  to accept we would be feasting on Christmas day. Not my most diplomatic (in fact a little colonial) of moves but turns out I needed the whole day off work to cook the thing anyway!

Eventually we got over that drama and we all had a few drinks to pass the evening. Then it was time to wake up hungover and cook for 20 people! At 10am it seemed like a mammoth task and coffee was needed before any planning or cooking was going to happen.

I think we made about 4 or 5 trips to the Cobal to buy ingredients but it was going well.

Dining hall looking festive thanks to Garam!

Although we both felt drained of energy and started to get a little nervous towards the end in case things just didn't taste good.  But after 6 hours slaving away in the kitchen making all the trimmings, desert and lots of turkey basting. 7pm arrived. Everyone enjoyed the food even if there was a little bit of tension between a few of the volunteers. Guess even when you not with your relations you can't have Christmas without an argument!

The night ended with free tequila shots in the Mafia. Thanks Tony!

Boxing day was not such a fun day at work but I did have a fun evening! Horrible hangover at work number 2! Hope you all had a great Christmas too or a great ordinary week of you're  Jewish :p

I've had a bit of a detox since no drinking and ventured my poor football skills onto the kibbutz football field on Friday to burn off some of the Christmas excess.

Oh and one last thing if you ever need any illustrations or cartoons The Whole Hogg is the place to go!